


I'll keep waiting only forever

by aeternus_alibi



Series: Between The Minds [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, takes place before 5x17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 09:17:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12229989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeternus_alibi/pseuds/aeternus_alibi
Summary: All of a sudden, he’s out of breath, his heart beating so loud in his chest that he’s afraid Lydia might hear it. He’s so used to hiding his feelings for her that it feels almost therapeutic finally getting them out, it feels right, fulfilling, exactly how it should be. He just hopes Lydia thinks this way too.





	I'll keep waiting only forever

It’s been a week since they got her out of Eichen. Yes, seven long days of staring at the ceiling replaying that horrible day in her head over and over. But she’s not doing it again, that’s enough; it ends today, right now.

The sunlight is creeping in through the pearl-grey curtains of her bedroom as Lydia sits at the vanity table, completely still and deep in thought. She looks at herself in the mirror searching for some drastic changes, but the reflection gives her back the same old Lydia everyone used to see: red braided hair, flawless make-up, green eyes. The same Lydia _she_ used to see.

Then why does she feel so unrecognizable?

“Hey, stranger,” Stiles appropriately greets from her doorstep, a warm grin on his face. “Ready to go?”

Lydia smiles faintly at his reflection in the mirror. “Yeah, I think so”

He enters the room, frowning at her shaky tone. “Lydia, if you don’t wanna go, I think everyone would underst…”

“Spare me the lecture, okay? I’m not spending another day at home doing nothing,” she interrupts. “I want to come back to school. I _need_ to”

“Okay, then,” Stiles’ reflection sighs. “Should have known you miss Calculus that bad,” he adds in a lighter tone and Lydia almost smiles like she means it. One of these days, Stiles is gonna make her smile like she used to, and that day is gonna be a great one for both of them.

After a few moments of silence, Lydia slightly turns her head to the right and her eyes sadden. “Do you see that?”

The boy is caught by surprise. “See what?”

“The scar on my skull,” she simply responds with a faint voice and Stiles’ heart skips a beat. “I can’t hide it completely yet, the hair has not grown enough,” she explains, deliberately avoiding his apprehensive gaze in the mirror.

“You don’t have to care about that, Lydia,” he murmurs with a suffering expression on his face. “You don’t have to care about that for a second. _Nothing_ that happened to you was your fault”

“Stiles, I _know_. I don’t care about people noticing, it’s not that. I guess… I guess I’m just tired of all of these nasty scars on my body”

He clears his throat. “I don’t think that the word _nasty_ and a reference to your body can exist in the same sentence, but maybe that’s just me”

“Stiles,” she rolls her eyes, but there’s a pinch of amusement in the way she says his name.

“Well, what can I say?” He raises his shoulders, eyebrows curving up. “I think your scars are beautiful, Lydia”

 _Just like everything about you_ , he wants to add, but his courage fails him.

Lydia bites her lower lip, staring down at her hands. “I don’t see much _beauty_ in them”

“Look at them as a reminder,” he responds urgently, with cheeks slightly red and a voice shaky with pride and emotion. “Look at them and remind yourself what you were able to get through” He takes a step forward, emphasizing every word with a movement of the hand. He _needs_ her to understand how important this conversation is to him and how much he means those words. “Remind yourself that you are Lydia freaking Martin and how incredibly strong you are. Look at them and _please_ Lydia, don’t see imperfection. See struggle, tenacity, grace, pulchritude and _bravery_ ”

All of a sudden, he’s out of breath, his heart beating so loud in his chest that he’s afraid Lydia might hear it. He’s so used to hiding his feelings for her that it feels almost therapeutic finally getting them out, it feels right, fulfilling, exactly how it should be. He just hopes Lydia thinks this way too.

Somewhere along his heartfelt speech, she’s turned around on her chair to face him, but he hasn’t been able to meet her gaze yet. Only when Stiles hears her sigh he dares to look at her in the eyes, scared to death of what he might find there. He actually feels his hands trembling along his sides.

“Only you,” Lydia says amusingly, shaking her head.

Stiles blinks, utterly confused. “ _Only me_ what?”

Lydia’s eyes narrow. “ _Pulchritude_? Really?” She raises her hands in resignation, the hint of a smile on her lips. “Only you, Stiles”

Well, certainly he wasn’t expecting _this_ reaction. “ _Ha_. _Ha._ Very funny. Truly hilarious, Lydia”

“ _You_ are hilarious,” she finally stands up, grabbing the purse she left on the edge of her bed. “But don’t worry, that’s one of the main reasons I like you so much,” she jokes – _or not?_

Stiles swallows his lips and looks at her with the same deep inquisitive gaze he has when he’s attaching new evidences on his board. She walks past him and reaches the door, suddenly impatient to get away from that look. Whatever he’s trying to figure out, she’s not gonna let him. Not yet.

“Well thanks, I’m kinda warming up to you too,” he says eventually, but there’s so much _more_ he wants to tell her, so many questions he wants to ask, too many doubts he needs to get out of his head. Everything is right there, on the tip of his tongue.

 _Lydia,_ _I lo…_

“Are you coming or not?”

 _…ve you_. He closes his eyes, sighing, then turns around and smiles. “Sure, let’s go”

 _Not today_ , he thinks. _Not today_.

The right time never seems to come.


End file.
